Published: Friday, May 10, 2013 at 04:32 PM.

The Salvation Army’s Boys Club, now the Boys and Girls Club, helped him come out of his shell, taught him how to treat people and laid a foundation for his success, he said.

This Friday, Slaughter will return the favor at the Boys and Girls Club of Alamance County. He’s headlining Battle for the Bus, a wrestling event to raise money to replace two worn out buses the club uses daily.

CWF Mid-Atlantic wrestlers will hold several matches. Slaughter won’t be able to wrestle due to contractual obligations with World Wrestling Entertainment, but he and his tag-team champion partner Don Kernodle will be there signing autographs and pumping up the crowd.

“I’ll be there giving away autographs, headlocks and cobra clutches,” Slaughter said with a smirk.

Slaughter has also donated four tickets to a WWE event that will be auctioned off.

All of the money raised will go to the Boys and Girls Club.

“It’s a privilege to have someone like Sgt. Slaughter, who grew up with the Boys and Girls Club, come and help Alamance County’s Boys and Girls Club. We’re honored to host someone of his stature,” said Lt. Jimmy Taylor, director of the Salvation Army of Alamance County.

For a generation of American kids, few were as tough as Sgt. Slaughter.

In the ring where he made his name, he was 6 feet 5 inches of tough-talking, cobra-clutching, pro-America swagger. And when G.I. Joe immortalized him as a cartoon character and action figure, he turned his intimidating growl into a franchise.

Perched on the end of an iron jaw, even his chin looks like it could beat you up.

So it’s disarming when he steps from the spotlight, removes his campaign hat and makes an admission in a soft voice that’s the soothing opposite of his famous snarl.

“I’m a pretty shy person.”

As the conversation unfolds, he reveals himself as a natural storyteller, inserting just the right details at just the right times, to keep a small audience at the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club in rapt attention. Another thing is also clear: He’s a very nice guy.

How in the world did this gentle giant grow the persona of an icon and a World Wrestling Entertainment Hall-of-Famer?

Part of the answer is the Boys and Girls Club.

As a boy in the Minneapolis suburbs, he attended the Salvation Army’s Boys Club every day after school. When class let out, he raced to get to the basement of the small church where the program met. He knew his friends would be there and he knew there’d be dodgeball and basketball.

At first, he stood by himself, hanging back as the other boys picked teams and played games.

“I was a shy kid. I was always bigger than everybody else. I’ve got a lazy eye. And sometimes when I’d talk, spittle would fly out of my mouth. Is there anything worse than talking to someone and watching a piece of spittle go in their face?”

Then one day, a boy named Danny approached him.

“He saw I was by myself, brought a ball over and asked me if I wanted to play,” Slaughter said. “And then I met some other friends there, too. We all looked out for each other.”

Danny was the best man in Slaughter’s wedding. They remain close.

The Salvation Army’s Boys Club, now the Boys and Girls Club, helped him come out of his shell, taught him how to treat people and laid a foundation for his success, he said.

This Friday, Slaughter will return the favor at the Boys and Girls Club of Alamance County. He’s headlining Battle for the Bus, a wrestling event to raise money to replace two worn out buses the club uses daily.

CWF Mid-Atlantic wrestlers will hold several matches. Slaughter won’t be able to wrestle due to contractual obligations with World Wrestling Entertainment, but he and his tag-team champion partner Don Kernodle will be there signing autographs and pumping up the crowd.

“I’ll be there giving away autographs, headlocks and cobra clutches,” Slaughter said with a smirk.

Slaughter has also donated four tickets to a WWE event that will be auctioned off.

All of the money raised will go to the Boys and Girls Club.

“It’s a privilege to have someone like Sgt. Slaughter, who grew up with the Boys and Girls Club, come and help Alamance County’s Boys and Girls Club. We’re honored to host someone of his stature,” said Lt. Jimmy Taylor, director of the Salvation Army of Alamance County.

The club uses the buses to transport scores of children from 15 schools to its after-school programs and camps at its Stockard Road, Burlington, location.

IT’S AN OPEN secret that Slaughter, 64, has lived in Burlington a few years.

He was born in Beaufort, S.C., the son of a U.S. Marine, and moved around the country growing up. He enlisted in the U.S. Marines as an adult, where he was an actual sergeant, and was honorably discharged. In 1974, he began his pro-wrestling career.

Traveling with Crocket Promotions of Charlotte, he met Kernodle — an Alamance County native — and the two became friends. Slaughter would often stay in Burlington and visit with Kernodle’s parents during tours.

“I got to like the area. And I met a few other people through (Kernodle),” Slaughter said.

In 2006, he was living in Florida. His daughters were in West Virginia. He knew he could be a little closer to them and enjoy friends here if he moved. So he bought a home near a golf course here. He’s an avid golfer, often taking part in charity tournaments to aid children and veterans’ causes.

Reflecting on his 40-year career in wrestling, it took a few years before he found his niche. He played the villain for a few years before striking gold as Sgt. Slaughter who battled the Iron Sheik in the World Wrestling Federation ring. The WWF was later renamed the WWE. His signature move, the Cobra Clutch, became famous as a headlock no one could break.

Looking for something to add to his routine, he thought of Kernodle — “everybody loved Don” — and approached him about being a tag-team duo of a sergeant and private. In 1981, they won the NWA World Tag-Team Title.

They trademarked the Slaughter Mobile, a camouflage 1973 limo that Kernodle would escort Slaughter to and from matches in.

“It became a character in itself,” Slaughter said. “When you’re the villain, your car is like a bull’s-eye. But when I became a hero, people would scratch family members’ names into the paint.”

The Slaughter Mobile logged more than 500,000 miles and is now property of the WWE, which uses it for events.

In 1984, Slaughter’s fame went stratospheric when Hasbro approached him with the possibility of becoming part of its G.I. Joe cartoon and toy franchise. He drove to a meeting in a Slaughter Mobile flying American flags and in character. They were still on the fence.

Due to contracts with Vince McMahon’s WWE, Slaughter had to choose between G.I. Joe and the WWF. He pursued the toy line, lending his voice to the long-running cartoon and a 1986 feature-length movie. He also filmed live-action promotional spots for the cartoon.

In 1990, he returned to the WWE. The catch was that McMahon wanted him as a villain. Slaughter’s character mocked America and made anti-American statements. It went so far that McMahon had him become an Iraqi sympathizer during the Gulf War.

“Before I did it, I asked my family what they thought about it. They said I was crazy. I knew it could be rough. That was rough,” he said.

Some fans threatened violence. The anti-American routine didn’t last long before he was waving the American flag again.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. These days, he still makes regular appearances at WWE events and on its broadcasts. He also works as an ambassador for the company, making public appearances in character. And he helps train up-and-coming wrestling stars for the company.

“My parents couldn’t afford college. I always thought I might be a teacher or a coach or a preacher,” Slaughter says. “But in a way, I’ve gotten to do all of that.”

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If you go:

Sgt. Slaughter will be at the Battle for the Bus on Friday, raising money to help buy the Boys and Girls Club two new buses. He’s donated four tickets to a WWE event that will be auctioned that night.